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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29801208">four layers deep under the surface</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/gryjoy/pseuds/gryjoy'>gryjoy</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Walking Dead (Telltale Video Game)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Gen, Minor Clementine/Louis (Walking Dead: Done Running), Minor Luke/Nick (Walking Dead: All That Remains), Multi, Piano, ericson school for troubled youth, i mean its there but is not the focus, reflecting on the past</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-03-02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-03-02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-15 17:34:31</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Not Rated</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>965</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29801208</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/gryjoy/pseuds/gryjoy</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Clementine cannot remember her last name, and maybe that's for the best.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Clementine/Louis (Walking Dead: Done Running)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>18</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>four layers deep under the surface</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>title from oak island but fog lake </p><p>its pretty open to whatever, obviously it follows clouis romance, implied wellington ending and a lot of headcannons</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p><p>Clementine cannot remember her last name, and maybe that's for the best.</p><p>Louis remembers his, though he refuses to acknowledge it, Clem knows it's something dumb, she looked at the file, but she never was good at reading names so it doesn't matter.</p><p>The others only know their last names from the files. When Clem asked what Aasim's last name was or Ruby's they both took a moment to answer, hesitant not to get it wrong.</p><p>AJ doesn't have a last name.</p><p>Clementine never knew Alvin's last name or even Rebecca's. She never knew any of the cabin group's names except for Pete and Nick, it was Randall, she remembers because she always thought it was fitting.</p><p>She wishes she remembers her last name, or even AJ's just so he has something of his parents besides Kenny's hat that doesn't fit him or Nick's watch which has been cracked and broken since Carver.</p><p>Clementine sometimes tells him bedtime stories about Luke or Lee, even Javier. She normally skips over the sad endings for two out of three but AJ already knows and never asks.</p><p>Clem will even tell him about the stories Pete told her when she first met the group, Nick not being able to shoot the deer or the stories Luke told her from college during the trip between the cabin and the ski lodge. She hasn't seen Javier in years, last time she heard, Gabe is still alive, Kate and Javi had a baby boy they named Salvador JR after Javier's father.</p><p>Lee is a tricky subject, AJ knows this.</p><p>Clementine talks about the motor inn a lot and she is very much aware of this, she tells AJ about her leaf chalk prints, about Duck, about Lee finding her hat, and her thinking he was a Guardian angel. And in a way he was. Is.</p><p>Clementine and AJ like to talk about what life was like before and what it would be like if the world never ended. A life without walkers.</p><p>AJ believes he and Clem would be best friends with a treehouse like the one in Clementine's stories, she never stops to tell him that they would probably have never met and he may not exist in the same way he does now.</p><p>Clementine believes she would be in high school like the ones in Louis' magazines, like the one about the movie that came out the year after Clementine was born, all pink and frilly, living her own Beverly Hills lifestyle but in Georgia instead.</p><p>She's asked Louis before, "if this never happened where would you be?" he had only smiled and kissed her shoulder, lingering for a moment in thought: </p><p>"Here. I would still be here."</p><p>Clementine knows this is not true.</p><p>If the world never ended, yes, Louis would be at the school for some time but eventually, he would leave, so would Marlon and the others, she believes the two boys would still have been friends.</p><p>Clementine sometimes wonders what she would be when she grew up. Maybe a teacher, an actress, the president, though she's only aware of those spots from the magazines that have been worn down over the years, only being held together by a few pieces of tape.</p><p>
  <em>Louis is playing the piano and Clementine can't help but watch.</em>
</p><p>She sometimes thinks about what high school would have been like if she and Louis went together. Maybe it would be all romance and reluctant at first like the movies she's only read the summaries for, or if it would be like Luke had told her it was like, parties, hangovers,  barely passing grades, but sports and proms and kissing.</p><p>Clementine believes Louis would be a theatre kid. She knows Luke was and she believes Louis would be too. </p><p>Luke told Clem that Nick used to play the guitar a lot, how back in college when Luke was in art school and Nick was a mechanic he used to drop by Luke's cheap apartment with a six-pack of beer, a beaten-up guitar, and blackened hands from work to play some stupid Elvis song he learned just for him.</p><p>Luke would smile when he said that or told stories like that, only once when Nick was around back at the ski lodge he voiced it out loud, Nick just turned red and scoffed, looking back down at the meal that was less than appealing.</p><p>After Nick's death and they finally had a breather was when Luke broke down, "I loved him, Clem," was what he said, "more than anything."</p><p>Clementine knew what he meant, '<em>I loved him more than a brother</em>,' and she finally understood what it was like to love someone so bad it hurt. Just like Luke did.</p><p>When Luke died and before Bonnie left, she gave Clementine a hair clip Luke had been saving for her, giving it to Bonnie so she could possibly win some points. But as Bonnie had said all those years ago, ’<em>doesn't matter much now does it.</em>’</p><p>Clementine still has the beige clip, now broken since then. It used to be orange and whenever she looks at it she smiles.</p><p>Louis knows a few Elvis songs, though Clem has no clue who that is but, she enjoys the music that fills the air.</p><p><br/>
Clementine enters the music room, Louis looks up but doesn't stop playing.</p><p>"I remember my last name," Clementine says, crossing her arms as she shifts her weight to one side.</p><p>Louis' playing becomes softer with simpler keys but yet somehow still precise, "and what's that?"</p><p>Clem smiles and sits next to Louis, he continues to play as she reaches out to trace the engravings of their initials in the wood, "Everett. Clementine Everett."</p><p>Louis continues to plays, a smile gracing his lips.</p><p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>cant believe i wrote a fanfic that isnt romance driven lol</p><p>  <a href="https://gryjoy.carrd.co/#">carrd </a> || <a href="https://maccreadysimp.tumblr.com/">tumblr </a> || <a href="https://www.instagram.com/spiity/">insta </a></p></blockquote></div></div>
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